


life imitating art

by mingowow



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Art Student Mingyu, Autumn feels, College AU, Fluff, M/M, barista minghao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mingowow/pseuds/mingowow
Summary: mingyu had really meant to stick to his study plans but when there's a cute barista always around that he would much rather be doodling on napkins... well, he's only human.
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 13
Kudos: 113
Collections: The Gyuhao Exhibit 2020: Snap Shoot





	life imitating art

**Author's Note:**

> some sweet, fluffy college gyuhao to celebrate gyuhao day!
> 
> please check out the other gyuhao works for this lovely fest! ^^
> 
> unbeta'd, apologies for any mistakes~

This was supposed to be the year that Mingyu got his crap together, academically speaking.

That’s not to say he was a bad student, or that he ever was, but if he was being completely honest, he had skated by pretty much his entire life on just sheer intelligence alone. There were very few all-nighters pulled studying for exams, he comfortably spent most of his hours at various academies polishing his social skills over his academic prowess. Even his college entrance exams weren't that bad of an experience and they were _bad_ for everyone.

But the funny thing about college was that now, despite him having more freedom than ever before, he had to actually _try_ and put forth the effort to complete his assignments. Natural born smarts were great for tests and bookwork but it's not like he could churn out a 25-page essay in the blink of an eye just by leaning on his intelligence alone. It took time, it took resolution.

His art classes weren't anything to worry about but the courses he was less interested in (but needed to, you know, actually graduate) were the problem.

So that's why (finally) at the start of his third year, he made a plan: every day (every single day!!) during the week, he'd hunker down in a cafe to limit his distractions and get work done for the classes he dreaded most.

It had been a brilliant plan, especially when Wonwoo had agreed to keep him company on days when he wasn't working with his silly little student board shenanigans. His final year schedule was brutal evidently (which Mingyu believed because Wonwoo could focus and work _anywhere_ , so if he thought it was bad then Mingyu knew he could probably never handle it himself).

It seemed foolproof at the start: no family to distract him, caffeine and snacks at his disposal, his hyung around to crack the whip and pester with any questions he had.

Mingyu had meant to stick to the plan, he really did.

But it only ended up lasting one day. Well, one day and about thirty minutes.

Mingyu's nose was dutifully buried in a textbook, skimming over paragraphs that read more like Charlie Brown's teacher's voice in word-form than anything educational, when a very loud clattering woke him up and his eyes sought out the source of the noise.

And just like in all the romantic comedies he had consumed over the years, everything in the room seemed to transition into slow motion. All Mingyu could focus his attention on was the guy who had dropped a tray of dirty mugs and plates.

"Crap, sorry. I'm sorry," the employee blurted out, quickly going to his knees and piling the largest shards of broken ceramic and glass onto the now empty tray.

It had been downhill from there, really. Whatever spell the slender, relatively reserved cafe worker had cast over Mingyu was far too strong for him to break.

Every weekday Mingyu came by and every day, the guy was always there. Usually, he was bussing tables or making drinks, serving up cakes and bread from the display case. Mingyu had never directly interacted with him while paying for his regular order of one iced Americano. He wasn't sure if he should be relieved or disappointed about that.

"Earth to Mingyu."

Mingyu blinked, only breaking his line of sight (the barista guy was currently hanging up Halloween themed streamers along the counter) when Wonwoo jabbed a pen in his ear.

"Ow!" he whined, grabbing at the side of his head. "What was that for?"

"Listen, it's none of my business whether you pass or fail your classes but being that we're friends, I'm really not interested in hearing you blame me for the rest of eternity when you have to repeat a course or four."

Mingyu shot him an offended look.

"I'm not gonna flunk."

"Really? Because for the past two weeks you've read... I don't know, maybe 15 pages in that book?" Wonwoo pointed out with a tilt of his head. "You have managed to doodle on about a thousand napkins though," he added, reaching over to snatch up the square napkin with a vague drawing of a person on it.

A sound similar to a squeal escaped Mingyu's mouth as he ripped it out of his hyung's hand. Thankfully there were no defining characteristics on the one he had absent-mindedly been drawing today, unlike the others the past few days that had uniquely pointy ears and elegantly long fingers wrapped around espresso machine handles...

"Okay! Okay, fine. I'll focus."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Wonwoo said with a roll of his eyes. "Wanna know what I think?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me anyway."

"I think we need to find a new cafe."

"What?!" Mingyu balked. A new cafe? A cafe without the intriguing, attractive barista he couldn't help but gawk at and sketch on used napkins instead of studying?

"Ediya is just down the street and their coffees are, like, two bucks cheaper," Wonwoo explained. Mingyu huffed audibly, blowing his bangs out of his eyes. "And I'm pretty sure you'd be less distracted there."

"What makes you think that?" Mingyu replied, annoyed enough to scratch out the sketch he had made not even five minutes earlier.

"Because _that guy_ ," Wonwoo had the gall to flat out point at the employee Mingyu thought he was oh-so secretly enamored with, "doesn't work there."

"Hyung," Mingyu hissed, swatting his friend's hand down.

Wonwoo smirked at him, cockily. "You know, I wasn't totally certain you were into him but thanks for confirming it."

If they hadn't been in a semi-crowded public place, Mingyu might have picked up the other's books and chucked them across the room out of spite. "Shut up."

"Can you just go talk to him like a normal person? Maybe if you get it out of your system, you'll be able to actually study."

If Mingyu was being objective, he'd admit it was sound advice. But given that this situation was incredibly personal, _it was a pile of flaming garbage_. Go and talk to him? About what? How he spent hours every night staring at him and doodling his likeness on coffee-stained napkins when Mingyu didn't even know his name? Why the hell did the cafe not have name tags? The black t-shirt with black pants and red apron employee uniform stifled any glimpse of personality, so Mingyu couldn't really know anything about him.

Except... he perhaps did know some things. Like how he noticed the guy seemed to subtly dance when he was doing things like washing dishes or restocking straws. He'd bounced about, head lolling side to side, making Mingyu wonder if there was a song he was hearing in his head or if it was to the jazzy instrumental stuff the cafe loved to play all day, every day over the speakers.

And Mingyu had realized that the barista never drank coffee, only water or once in a blue moon, he'd have hot tea. He'd eat occasionally but never the good stuff (scones, cakes, muffins); he'd nibble on half a dry sandwich or a nearly over ripened banana.

So, _no_ Wonwoo, Mingyu couldn't just go talk to him like a normal person. There was no easy segue, no reason to approach him besides some lame excuse like, _"Hey, can I get a cup of ice? Oh, by the way, wanna go out sometime?"_

"I don't need to get anything out of my system," Mingyu stated firmly, crumbling up his now destroyed napkin. "Now if you'll get off my back, I have studying to do."

For the rest of the evening, he was pretty well-behaved. There was no more drawing and only glances towards the cute barista instead of long stretches of borderline creepy staring.

It became a motivation for him really, equal parts wanting to shut Wonwoo up and also wanting to prove to himself that he wouldn't let a distracting, attractive stranger take precedence over his education. Even if he wanted to be an artist, which his parents amazingly supported, they'd kill him if he didn't at least obtain a degree.

So every day from then on, he'd come in, order his iced coffee, and purposely avoid even looking at the barista. He'd set a timer on his phone for ninety minutes to get work done and then once the alarm went off? Well, then he'd reward himself with a few minutes of harmless ogling. It’s not like anyone could survive without something to look forward to. All work and no play made Mingyu a very dull boy or whatever.

What was most surprising to him was that even with keeping himself in line for a couple of weeks, he had learned even more about the barista.

The guy's schedule was the first thing he got down: he worked closing shifts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays, he was out of there by 6 PM. Mingyu didn't know about weekends, he had enough restraint and sense to keep himself from coming by on days when he and Wonwoo didn't meet.

(Not that it was easy. He'd be lying if he denied having a lazy Sunday here and there where he seriously debated catching the bus to the cafe near his college campus instead of getting a coffee at one of the fifty places closer to his apartment.

But that's not what mattered! What mattered was his resilience! He never actually gave in!)

And it may have taken almost thirty days (not that Mingyu was counting...) but he finally had a name to put with his face: Minghao. One of the other regular workers at the cafe, some guy with a long nose who always seemed to have a wide, cheek-hurting smile on his face, had called his name twice during Mingyu's five minutes of reward time. That confirmed it.

Who would have known that simply learning a name would be all it took to have all of Mingyu's resolve crumbling? The following days at the cafe, Mingyu barely managed to flip through a few pages. He did manage to create a gallery's worth of napkin sketches though.

"Mingyu, midterms start in less than _three weeks_ ," Wonwoo told him before swatting the pen out of his friend's hand, sending it flying onto the floor.

"Hey," Mingyu whined. Wonwoo quickly snatched up the napkin he had been scribbling on.

"I thought we were past this," he said with a sigh, shaking his head mostly for dramatic effect. He squinted his eyes to read the name Mingyu had scrawled on it under (what Mingyu had deemed) a rather nice sketch of a guy in an apron with a coffee mug in his hand. "Minghao? Who's Mingha--"

"Shut up!" Mingyu squawked, eyes nearly bugging out his head as he tore the paper napkin from the other's hand, throwing it onto the table. "Shut _up_."

It had been too late though, Mingyu realized with mounting mortification. It took one glance out of the corner of his eye for him to see that Minghao, who wasn't more than a few feet away, had heard his name being called and was currently looking at their table.

Wonwoo blinked, pulling his gaze from Mingyu's quickly reddening face to follow his side-eye glance. He was met with Minghao staring back at him, lips pursed and eyebrows raised.

"Ah. You're Minghao?" Wonwoo asked though the last syllable came out as more a puff of air, given how Mingyu slammed his foot down on the older's toes as hard as he could manage.

"Yes?" the barista answered with a tilt of his head.

"I'm sorry, my hyung here is confused," Mingyu laughed nervously, vividly feeling the blood rush to his cheeks (he was sure his face was flaming). "Hyung, I meant our _friend_ , Minghao." He twisted his heel into Wonwoo's toes again for good measure. "I'm sorry for bothering you."

"Okay..." Minghao nodded once, slowly, before he turned his back to stack up discarded mugs from a nearby table onto an empty tray. Mingyu held his breath until the employee walked away.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Wonwoo hissed, pulling his foot up onto his opposite knee to massage his toes.

"What's wrong with _me_? What's wrong with you, hyung?!" Mingyu squawked. "I thought you were my friend, why would you want to embarrass me like that?!"

"You knew his name! I figured that meant you had talked to him or something finally, sheesh."

"No! God, can you just mind your business about this and leave me alone?"

"Sure, fine. I'd love to leave you alone," Wonwoo spat out, quickly gathering his books and shoving them into his bag.

Mingyu balked a bit; Wonwoo rarely got angry. He really must have pushed the other too far.

"Hyung," Mingyu sighed, immediately regretting his choice of words and actions. "I'm sorry."

"Clearly you need to sort stuff out and I need to stop caring so much about whether you pass your exams or not. Good luck studying on your own," Wonwoo told him, his tone not unkind but the words still stinging Mingyu all the same.

Wonwoo slung his bag onto his shoulder and left the younger alone at the table.

Mingyu was left only with himself and his guilt and humiliation. The thought of studying now (or even daydreaming about cute baristas) seemed so unappealing. He ignored the looks and whispers aimed his way by neighboring tables of onlookers, packing up his things quickly and leaving behind a dirty table, something he never usually did.

Wonwoo was right: he really did have some stuff to sort out.

**\---**

One of the wonderful things about having Wonwoo as a friend was his inability to hold grudges.

All it took was one night of sleep, a texted apology, and a sworn promise of buying his next coffee for the elder to forgive him. His hyung told him he'd be a little late for their study session that evening because he had some meeting with his board of students group at their university, to which Mingyu quickly replied it was fine.

It was only after he had hit send that he realized perhaps Wonwoo had been right all along: maybe they really should have switched to another cafe.

Not only was Mingyu clearly distracted at their normal hangout but being so caught up in whatever infatuation he had over Minghao the barista had caused him to lash out at his friend. It was probably for the best if they went somewhere else.

> **Mingyu**  
>  Hyung, do you want to try another cafe today?

Mingyu had gone about his day, furiously taking notes during his classes as some physical manifestation of his overnight change in attitude and drive. Every time he got the urge to scribble in the margin of his notebook or doodle on the faces of people in his textbooks, he willed himself to control it. There was more to life than drawing! He could fight the urge if he really tried.

He was so on top of himself all day that he didn't notice until he was heading off-campus to meet Wonwoo that the older hadn't replied to his text, let alone read it given the little '1' still present by the message bubble.

To avoid any confusion, Mingyu decided he'd just meet Wonwoo at their regular spot and they could move to another cafe down the street if needed.

He felt a bit embarrassed walking into the place (though the common sense sector of his brain told him nobody there now was probably there last night, sans Minghao _of course_ because even though it was Thursday, it was still early enough that he probably hadn't finished his shift yet and oh god... the fact that Mingyu was aware of all this was quite humiliating).

After giving his standard iced coffee order to the pointy-nosed, always-smiling barista Mingyu was familiar with, he plopped down at his and Wonwoo's regular table with an audible sigh (for what would hopefully be the last time).

It seemed as if fate was on his side that night because while he waited for both his coffee and his friend, he never saw a sign of Minghao. _This is good_ , he reminded himself, trying terribly hard to ignore the disappointment that manifested itself as a lump in his throat.

Even if it was good, if it was for the best, that didn't stop him from feeling let down. Seeing Minghao, as few and far in between as their exchanged words were, was always a highlight of his day. Daydreaming and wondering about what kind of life he lived by only piecing together vague and generally useless clues from the cafe were fun for him. Doodling his likeness and using his need for a reference as an excuse to study the curve of his neck or the dimple on his cheek was--

"Um, excuse me."

Mingyu jostled in his seat out of surprise, turning his head towards the voice and blinking. And blinking some more, very rapidly.

Minghao was standing beside him, iced coffee in hand. "Sorry if I startled you. Here's your drink."

"Oh. Oh, it's fine, thank you," Mingyu stammered out, taking the cold cup from the other's hands and swallowing the desire to gape at his pretty fingers. "Thank you," he repeated, turning away before he knew the heat would envelop his entire face.

Mingyu anxiously swirled the straw around in his drink, hoping that Wonwoo would enter and they could leave or Minghao would run out like he normally does on Thursdays. What time was it? Wasn't it time for him to go? _God_ , Mingyu knew he shouldn't be aware of those kinds of things.

"Excuse me," he heard Minghao speak up again.

He unintentionally pinched the tip of his straw, flattening it before forcing himself to look up at Minghao who appeared... nervous? "Huh? Yeah?"

"I hope this doesn't come off as a weird thing to ask but did you draw this?" Minghao asked, reaching into the pocket of his red apron and pulling out a crumpled napkin.

The partially ripped napkin practically shoved in Mingyu's face had a very quickly albeit detailed sketch of a guy with longish hair and an even longer neck, an apron snugly tied around his slim waist, and a mug cooly hanging off of one finger. And of course, there was the freaking name _Minghao_ written beneath it in Mingyu's own handwriting.

It was the drawing he did the night before, the drawing he did of Minghao (one of the dozens over the past couple months), that was now currently in Minghao's possession. And he was asking if Mingyu was the one who had drawn it.

"Oh god. Look, I'm sorry about that. I swear I'm not a psycho stalker or something," Mingyu babbled, nearly reaching for the napkin to dispose of it himself. He imagined burning it with a lighter that he, unfortunately, didn't actually own or, if all else failed, shoving it into his mouth and forcing himself to swallow it. Anything to make it disappear ASAP.

Minghao brought the napkin back towards his own face, appearing to inspect it.

"I don't think anything like that. Artists draw stuff around them all the time, right? And you're always here, I'm always here, so..." Minghao had noticed he was there all the time? "You're really good. I was just wondering if you took classes around here or something. Or if you offer lessons?"

"If I offer lessons?"

"Yeah, drawing lessons."

Mingyu felt frozen, wondering briefly if Wonwoo had somehow gotten to Minghao and the two had agreed to punk him because this all seemed too unreal and like it would lead to too many potentially awesome possibilities.

"You want me to teach you how to draw?" Mingyu asked again with a head tilt, searching for clarification.

"That sounds really dumb, huh?" Minghao laughed a little, just a bubble of a giggle that Mingyu's certain is the cutest thing he's ever heard. And if he didn't know any better, he'd think the other's ears were turning a pretty shade of pink. "Forget it, sorry for bugging you."

Minghao turned his shoulders and hastily shoved the napkin back into his apron's pouch. Everything seemed to happen simultaneously in slow motion and in the blink of an eye and Mingyu had officially begun to panic. His hands fluttered about, knocking into his coffee and splashing some onto the clean table.

"Wait!" he all but yelled, cringing at how his sound level caused Minghao to jolt. "I can teach you."

This was it, he thought to himself. Despite all his blunders and embarrassing behaviors, it seemed like this was the universe's way of giving him an in, a reason to talk to Minghao that wasn't as awkward and bold as approaching him with no plan at all.

The barista turned back towards him, head angled slightly. "Seriously? That would be great."

Mingyu allowed himself a smile, his nerves still fizzling.

"I can pay whatever you think is fair, just let me know. I really appreciate it."

And there was the kicker.

Mingyu didn't want Minghao's money, he'd feel gross if he accepted it knowing full well how much he just wanted an excuse to talk to and get to know the guy. Yet duh, why would Minghao have any interest in just hanging out with him? Of course, it was just something like business to him. He had no reason to show any genuine interest in Mingyu himself.

For reasons unknown, Wonwoo's face suddenly conjured itself up into Mingyu's head, his expression as unimpressed as ever.

" _You're being given this on a silver platter. Don't be dumb and fuck it up,_ " his Wonwoo hallucination berated him.

The imaginary scolding seemed to work.

"You don't have to pay me," Mingyu replied, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his neck. "We can just hang out? And I can help you. I don't know how good of a teacher I'll be anyway."

It might have been Mingyu's imagination but he swore he noticed Minghao's eyes light up a bit. "Really? I need all the help I can get so any advice will be greatly appreciated."

Mingyu was about to ask why he needed help with drawing of all things but the phone in Minghao's pocket buzzed then and the employee cursed under his breath.

"I gotta clock out and head to my night class but um..." Minghao trailed off, digging around in his apron before pulling out a pen. "Here's my Kakao. Message me tonight and we can work something out?" He leaned over Mingyu's table and scribbled something on a clean napkin before using the others to wipe up the mess Mingyu had made in his haste just moments earlier. Mingyu found himself staring at the bump on the other's ear as he cleaned, curious and fond.

"Okay," he finally replied dumbly, picking up the napkin and tracing his thumb over the still-wet ink, smudging it a little. "Sure."

"Great! I'll talk to you later then," Minghao said with a smile, a sight that was new to Mingyu and clearly contagious, given how he easily grinned back.

A few minutes after he watched Minghao exit the cafe with a messenger bag over his shoulder, Wonwoo arrived, his glasses fogging up slightly inside the warm room.

"Sorry I'm late. There was a meeting about whether or not we should throw some kind of Halloween-slash-autumn party after exams," the elder explained with a huff as he plopped down.

"Hyung!" Mingyu greeted brightly, sitting up straight in his chair. "I'm ready to really study."

**\---**

Mingyu all but bolted out of his classroom, bouncing and jumping for absolute joy. He had been on the verge of nodding off during the lecture when a bunch of gasps and whispers erupted due to a number of students getting notifications about their midterm scores being available.

So like his peers, Mingyu had quickly logged in and searched for his results while their professor seemed to give up on speaking for the time being.

If his current choice of running-slash-skipping wasn't any indicator to everyone around him, he had actually passed his exams and not just by the skin of his teeth! It was cause for celebration and some much overdue gratitude showered onto Wonwoo for helping him stay on track.

Luckily for him, there was a Halloween party of sorts that evening, one that Wonwoo and his student committee friends (or whatever they were, Mingyu had never been clear on the details) had organized. It was truly perfect timing.

He had hurried home to put on his not quite original (but evidently required) costume before heading to the address of the rented room cafe Wonwoo had sent.

When he arrived, there were already a good number of people there. Some had extravagant costumes (there was a guy in a full-blown astronaut get-up including helmet and a girl with rather convincing stitches covering her skin in what Mingyu assumed was an attempt at Sally) though many went the more simpler route: cat ear headbands, random cuts and zombie bites, enough Waldos to make it an actual game.

After searching around the room and saying hello to a few familiar faces, Mingyu had spotted the deerstalker cap which had been a dead giveaway.

"Wonwoo hyung!" he exclaimed, throwing an arm around Wonwoo's tweed jacket covered shoulders. "Sherlock Holmes? Really? _Again_?" he teased.

Wonwoo glanced at him before poking the mouthpiece of his prop pipe against the brim of Mingyu's own hat.

"Indiana Jones? Really?" Wonwoo echoed.

Mingyu pouted but it lasted only a moment before he remembered his exciting news. "Hyung, I passed my exams with flying colors!"

At that, Wonwoo finally smiled, looping an arm around Mingyu to give him a small squeeze. "Thank god, I wouldn't be able to deal with your whining if you hadn't." Mingyu clicked his tongue in a childish way. "I'm proud of you, good job."

"Thanks for helping keep me in line."

"Mhm," Wonwoo hummed, leading Mingyu over to a table set up with drinks and handing the younger a beer. "Is he coming?"

Mingyu took a swig of his drink and couldn't help but smile at his hyung's question. "Yeah, after his class finishes."

The night was mellow and nice, the happiness of his exam scores keeping him buzzing all night, bantering with Wonwoo and a few of their other friends, finishing beer after beer until his head felt fuzzy and funny. There was not much else that could improve his mood.

"Mingyu, hey."

Right. There was just one thing that could improve his mood and Mingyu turned around to see that one thing smiling at him. He naturally smiled back, cheeks stretching so much it almost hurt.

"Minghao, you're here."

"I'm here. Seokmin wanted to come too, I hope it's okay that I brought him along," Minghao said, motioning to his coworker beside him, someone Mingyu had grown to know and genuinely enjoy the company of over the past couple of weeks.

"Of course," Wonwoo interjected. "Minghao, your costume is... a painter?"

Mingyu finally looked over the barista's outfit: a long-sleeved green shirt and a pair of baggy denim overalls that had a few sprays and splatters of blue and white paint on them. Minghao laughed a little, fiddling with the round glasses on his nose.

"I'm a rabbit!" Seokmin exclaimed, turning around to show off the cotton ball tail on the back of his light pink onesie, long pointed ears on the hood. "Minghao didn't change after his art class, he was too eager to get here--ow!" he hollered, rubbing at his side where Minghao evidently elbowed him, hard.

"Sorry, I didn't have time to change," Minghao laughed again, this time a bit strained. His ears started to pink and Mingyu had to resist the urge to audibly coo.

"No worries. C'mon Seokmin, let's get some drinks," Wonwoo said, grabbing the smiling boy's arm and tugging him away, leaving Mingyu alone with the object of his still-secret affection.

Despite being in a room full of people, the pair seemed content to spend most of the night on their own, eventually drifting to a corner table in the room, huddled together over a pile of drawn on napkins.

Even though he had no experience teaching the art of drawing to anyone else, Mingyu had taken to showing Minghao the ropes. Sure, it helped quite a bit that the other was artistic himself, just more with paints than a pen or pencil. Minghao was an art student, much like Mingyu, and it had been surprising to them both that given their similar interests and fields of study (at the same school nonetheless!), they hadn't crossed paths before.

Where Mingyu's art took on more realistic forms, Minghao's was quite abstract. He never had much confidence in his drawing abilities but had been wanting to challenge himself, expand his artistic horizons, so Mingyu had been teaching him all that he could.

It was safe to say the two were friends now, messaging each other every day and meeting up multiple times a week, even grabbing lunch near campus when their schedules allowed it. It was nice; it was _more_ than nice, a relationship Mingyu had already begun to cherish, even if it was just scraping the surface of what Mingyu really wanted.

Because Minghao was not just the super cute guy at the cafe now. He was fully realized in Mingyu's mind, all fleshed out with new details and tidbits adding to his being with every conversation the two shared. And all of that just made Mingyu like the guy even more. Grade A, doomed with no chance of escape, totally hopelessly _crushing_.

Wonwoo was convinced that Mingyu’s feelings weren't unrequited ("Have you _seen_ the way he fawns over you?" "You do realize it says something when he messages you first thing in the morning, every morning... right?" "I went to grab a coffee yesterday and he asked me why you hadn't come along.") but Mingyu didn't want to ruin a good thing. He'd keep feeling things out, taking his time soaking in all the information about Minghao and what made him the incredibly fascinating, wonderful human being he was.

"Uh oh, I think Seokmin is trashed," Mingyu laughed lightly, watching as the rabbit-dressed barista stood on a chair and began thrashing around to the Twice song playing through the Bluetooth speaker in the room.

"Huh?" Minghao looked up from the napkin he was doodling on, his left hand curled around it as if to hide it from Mingyu's view, which only made him more curious to peek (though he was good and didn't). "Ugh, he promised me he wouldn't get drunk."

"Wonwoo hyung is taking care of him, he'll be okay."

Minghao went back to his drawing, still being secretive about whatever he was sketching. Mingyu distracted himself by looking over their previous drawings from the evening, all based on references in the room around them: Wonwoo's laughing nose-scrunched face, a girl in a boxy robot costume, a line of empty soju bottles along a tabletop.

Minghao let out a quick breath, pulling Mingyu's attention up. The painter was looking at Mingyu, bottom lip drawn between his teeth.

"I'm not sure how good this one is," Minghao commented, folding down a corner of the napkin in his hands, the picture still hidden from Mingyu's view.

"Let me see," Mingyu replied with a smile, laying his hand on the table, palm up.

It was the most nervous Mingyu could recall ever seeing the other but he said nothing about it. With a heavy sigh, Minghao seemed to reluctantly place the napkin in Mingyu's hand.

Mingyu spun the flimsy paper around so it wasn't upside down and examined it closely. It was two people sitting together, huddled close, their faces even closer... were they kissing? A bit surprised but even more so curious, he tore his eyes away from the napkin to glance around the room, trying to find the couple Minghao had used as his reference.

"Is this a couple here?" Mingyu asked when he couldn't find a similar scene.

Minghao cleared his throat, sitting up a bit straighter. "Um, sort of? Not quite, I guess... Ah, it's really dumb," he chuckled, reaching out to take the picture from Mingyu's grasp.

The taller boy recoiled, clutching the napkin to his chest. "No! It's really good," Mingyu smiled, looking at the drawing again. _Sort of someone here_ , he hummed in thought, examining the sketch from top to bottom.

It was two people, both with relatively short hair. One had a brimmed hat on his head and some sort of jacket on, the other had glasses and overalls, just like the ones Minghao was-- oh.

 _Oh_.

"Oh," Mingyu stated dumbly. "Is this you and me?" He pulled his eyes from the sketch finally, looking up at Minghao who was as pink as Mingyu had ever seen him.

"It's so dumb, I'm sorry. Please forget I even drew it." The barista reached out again, trying to snatch the napkin but Mingyu held it above his head out of instinct.

"No! It's... it's great."

"You think I'm so weird," Minghao groaned, though it was laced with a laugh.

With a small smile, Mingyu shook his head. He felt his own cheeks growing hot but this! This was the kind of development he had been wishing and hoping for! He wasn't about to let Minghao sweep it all under the rug.

"Do you know the saying 'life imitates art'?" he asked.

Minghao pulled a face before nodding once.

Sure, they were in a relatively crowded room with some Zico song currently thumping through the sound system. And Mingyu was wearing a campy Indiana Jones inspired costume that definitely made him look like a bit of a dork. It wasn't how he had envisioned his first kiss with Minghao to be, not even close, but he supposed there were a lot worse scenarios to be in, like ones consisting of him not in his current situation: sitting next to the other, their knees bumping, with almost 100% certainty that Minghao actually wanted to kiss him too.

So Mingyu would take what he could get, he was in no place to be picky.

He was half self-conscious about the taste of beer on his mouth (given he's had at least five and Minghao had maybe one) but with the way Minghao's hands came up to clutch onto his leather jacket once their lips met, his fears were squashed.

He replicated Minghao's drawing in his head as his eyes fluttered shut: the mess of ink-covered napkins on the table, the way he felt his shoulders hunch forward to get the perfect angle, the tickle of Minghao's fingertips as they slid up to brush along his neck.

On the bus ride back to his apartment later that night, Mingyu realized he would never be able to draw anything else ever again.

At least nothing as vividly as that picture forever engraved in his mind, its tangible image on a napkin safely tucked away in the pocket of his jacket.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think! comments and kudos are always appreciated~^^


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